Proofs of Evolution. 303 



man's immediate ancestor. They want an ape who can build 

 a lire, whistle, and sing the Doxology ; though they might 

 possibly throw off the tire and the whistle. 



Before opening the cabinet of " Discovered links,'-' it may 

 be well clearly to understand just what we should, and just 

 what we should not, expect to find. First, as to those 

 living links which we do not find, it may be affirmed that 

 their very absence is proof of Evolution. Its vital princi- 

 ple forbids their presence. Natural Selection sends the 

 weakest to the wall, and so the transitional forms do not 

 live to be looked at. No one life, nor a thousand, is long 

 enough to observe the changing forms. As Mr. Darwin 

 remarks : " They perish by the very process of the forma- 

 tion of the new species." A hundred thousand years or 

 more have doubtless passed since man was first a man. His 

 ancestral link was prior to himself, and could not have 

 survived after man was fully evolved. It could not remain 

 a link, but must push on to a fully developed man. If it 

 were not so, Evolution would be but a childish dream. 



But the graded forms from brute to man, have all been 

 on the earth. "Why," you ask, "do we not find their 

 remains now ? " Eor this reason : Only now and then one 

 was drowned ; for it must be remembered that ocean travel 

 was limited in those days, and yachting parties were some- 

 what exceptional. It is doubtful whether the "Missing 

 Link " was either a sailor or a swimmer. Now, it is obvious 

 that only those links meeting a watery fate would stand 

 any chance of being preserved in the stratified rocks for 

 subsequent discovery. Besides, a link before becoming 

 immersed in hardening mud and sand, would do well if he 

 escaped being eaten by link-eating monsters of the deep. 

 And as for being preserved on land, what could one poor 

 little heap of bones do as against the mutation of half a 

 million years ? Therefore, in the very nature of time and 

 things, we could not certainly expect to find a man-like link, 

 living or dead. The soft parts of animals and plants, from 

 their very nature, must disappear. The rocks themselves 

 crumble and waste away, to be borne to the sea again with 

 all their wealth of fossil forms. The earth is broad and 

 deep, the stones hard, and the searchers are few ; and more- 

 over, the work is hardly yet begun. A museum of " Missing 

 Links " will be the attraction of the future. Nevertheless, 

 . with the door of Nature doubly barred, our sturdy scientists 



